Top 15 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America – December 2014

With 19,464 December sales in 2014, BMW’s 3-Series/4-Series vehicle line outsold all of Audi, all of Acura, all of Cadillac, all of Infiniti, all of Lincoln. Land Rover, Jaguar, and Volvo combined for 17,127 sales.

Yes, it was a particularly dominant month for the venerable BMW. And during the same period, sales of BMW’s X5 more than tripled, year-over-year, to 6098 units, making it the third-best-selling premium brand utility vehicle in December 2014.

Cadillac, meanwhile, the current whipping boy for American auto observers, posted a brand-wide 11% loss as their car volume fell 23% compared with December 2014.

Historical monthly and yearly sales figures for any of these top-selling luxury vehicles can always be accessed through the dropdown menu at GCBC’s Sales Stats page, and for those not viewing the mobile version of this site, near the top right of this page, as well.

For the purposes of the above list, premium brands include Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Volvo. Brands like Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Lotus don’t report specific monthly sales data. Bentley and Maserati only report brand totals. Buick has been excluded with a bunch of other automakers that don’t sell vehicles with base prices higher than $40K.

Rank

VehiclesWith Base Prices Above $45K

December 2014

December2013

% Change

2014

2013

% Change

#1

Chevrolet Tahoe

11,259

8646

30.2%

97,726

83,502

17.0%

#2

Chevrolet Suburban

6761

5820

16.2%

55,009

51,260

7.3%

#3

BMW X5

6098

1953

212%

47,031

39,818

18.1%

#4

Mercedes-Benz M-Class

5625

4485

25.4%

46,726

41,326

13.1%

#5

BMW 5-Series

5517

8102

-31.9%

52,704

56,863

-7.3%

#6

Mercedes-Benz E-Class

5119

8727

-41.3%

66,400

69,803

-4.9%

#7

GMC Yukon

4729

3597

31.5%

41,569

28,302

46.9%

#8

Cadillac Escalade

3740

2311

61.8%

30,522

22,514

35.6%

Cadillac Escalade ^

2281

1470

55.2%

19,482

12,592

54.7%

Cadillac Escalade ESV ^

1459

775

88.3%

10,987

7950

38.2%

Cadillac Escalade EXT ^

—

66

-100%

53

1972

-97.3%

#9

Chevrolet Corvette

3552

3005

18.2%

34,839

17,291

101%

#10

Mercedes-Benz GL-Class

3394

2239

51.6%

26,597

29,912

-11.1%

#11

GMC Yukon XL

3260

3158

3.2%

29,752

31,258

-4.8%

#12

Mercedes-Benz S-Class

2832

1857

52.5%

25,276

13,303

90.0%

#13

Lexus GS

2745

2604

5.4%

22,198

19,742

12.4%

#14

Lexus GX460

2707

1830

47.9%

22,685

12,136

86.9%

#15

Land Rover Range Rover Sport

2036

2305

-11.7%

17,897

15,976

12.0%

Source: Automakers & ANDC$45,000 USD (before delivery) is an arbitrary borderline, but if GCBC was to follow this system of designating only expensive vehicles as luxury vehicles, adding approximately $15,000 to the average new car transaction price seemed like a fitting place to begin. Plenty of less expensive vehicles with specific models feature prices above $45,000 – M, RS, and AMG models come to mind, specifically – but in the case of the second list, we know that none of the registrations were of cars priced at $32,750, as would be the case with the new BMW 320i, which costs less than a Honda Accord V6 Touring. The biggest problem with a $45,000 minimum price of entry? Cars like the Cadillac XTS, which starts at $44,660.^ Escalade breakdown by model* BMW USA, not GoodCarBadCar, has chosen to combine sales of the 3-Series and 4-Series. GCBC combines sales of the Audi A4 and Audi A4 Allroad. None-Allroad sales were down 10% to 3197 in December and down 7.5% to 33,993 in 2014. Cadillac’s new CTS – 2652 December sales – starts at $45,100, but the lingering CTS Coupe is a sub-$40K car, and the wagon starts at $42,195.